Week 31 of kindergarten is a solar eclipse, National Unicorn Day, and more! This week is all about unicorn lesson plans, eclipse activities, phonics, shapes, learning about the continents, and more!
CLICK HERE FOR PATTERNS LESSON PLANS
You can get our lesson plan templates here:
Phonics: TKS BOOTCAMP
We follow a required foundational skills curriculum and supplement it with our TKS BOOTCAMP resource, especially for extra practice and small group work! Our curriculum has switched to blends, digraphs, and double consonants, so we are using Blends Bootcamp. Our TKS BOOTCAMP curriculum works with ALL curriculums or as a stand-alone resource! This week, we are using Blends Bootcamp and Word Family Bootcamp to focus on words with beginning and ending digraphs, blending and decoding words, writing words, reading decodables, and lots of word chaining!
Blends Bootcamp is about using the sounds we learned in ABC BOOTCAMP to read words. We do two blends a week for five weeks, focusing on using all the sounds to decode, spell, write, and read words.
Our focus is on digraphs and CVC words. We’re practicing blending, segmenting, spelling, and writing words. We’re also playing soring and other games to focus on hearing the digraphs.
One of our go-to activities is sorting pictures to differentiate the sounds!
Blends Bootcamp is an all-inclusive resource aligned with the science of reading! It includes whole-group lessons, small-group lessons, decodable readers, and centers!
Phonics: Word Mapping
We will also use our Word Mapping mats during this time to work on our segmenting, spelling, and reading words! These have been a true game changer for my kids, especially those struggling with segmenting sounds and spelling words!
We’re also using our Digital Word Building Resource to do word chaining to work on blending CVC words!
We also used our glitter letters clipart to make glitter letter cards, and we’ve been using these cards in whole groups and small groups. The kids LOVE them! (This is CLIPART. You must insert the letter clipart into a document to make letter cards!)
We will also be doing our unicorn words lesson! My class LOVED this activity so we’re going to do it more and more!
Sight Word 60
This week’s words: two, was, we, up
Reading: The Continents
Our district has a required curriculum, and we are now learning about the continents. I was very nervous about this but the kids really got into learning about Europe and Asia! They’ve been excited to learn about different places! This week, we’re learning about Africa and South America!
We will read a book and do a notice and wonder chart for each continent. We’re also doing an evidence organizer of things to see, food to eat, and animals we might see. These are our graphic organizers from Europe and Asia:
This week, we will also read Why Do Mosquitos Buzz In People’s Ears and complete a story map.
Math: Shapes
Our district has adopted a new math curriculum (AGAIN!), so we’re trying to figure it out because it’s a lot, and it’s not aligned with our state standards, so there’s that. We’re using the curriculum and supplementing it with our MATH IT UP! and TKS BOOTCAMP curriculums.
This week, we’re wrapping up our shapes unit by using shapes to compose images and other shapes and we will finish up our 3D shapes graphic organizers.
We are using our Build It Up! resources for the composing shapes!
Eclipse Activities
Monday is the solar eclipse, and we will be outside to watch. Last week, we learned about eclipses, so we’re ready! Today we’re making hats, our memory pages, and getting our certificates!
Space Research Project
To keep the excitement about the eclipse going, we’re going to move from the eclipse into our Space Research Project. We will start by learning about astronauts and then each day we will learn about a planet.
In order to explore the solar system, we must become astronauts so we can complete our astronaut application!
For each planet, we view the actual NASA images of the planet and read a book to learn about the planet. We complete a graphic organizer and then complete our Space Research Journal!
Unicorn Lesson Plans: National Unicorn Day
Tuesday, April 9th is National Unicorn Day and we’re celebrating all day long because really, who doesn’t love unicorns!? Check out our unicorn lesson plans for all the ideas you need!
We start with a read-aloud! Thelma The Unicorn is a great story about being yourself!
We will graph whether we like unicorns. And yes, we always get some NO votes!
For our unicorn art project, we do our unicorn feet painting!
And yes, there is a fun and easy snack! Unicorn parfait! Unicorn pudding, marshmallows and sprinkles!
And no day is complete without a green screen picture!
Unicorn Lesson Plans: Morning Meeting
This week, we’re going to do a new unicorn greeting. Students will grab a unicorn from the bucket. The names will be written on unicorns. They will greet their friend!
For our activity, we’re going to find the clothespin. I hide a clothespin on a kid, and we have to find it. When we see the clothespin, we sit down!
Eclipse Activities Freebies:
WEEKLY RESOURCES
Click below for the resources we are using in our classroom this week.
For more information, check out these posts:
